Contested Classrooms: Education, Globalization, and Democracy in Alberta / Edition 1

by Trevor W. Harrison, Jerrold Kachur

Overview

Education has become a battlefield, the classroom the arena where the contest is fought. The 1997 Ontario teachers' strike, the federal government's Millennium Scholarship, and a wave of protests across the country are among the signals that the war is heating up. Alberta stands as a Canadian model of radical education reform, propelled by economic necessity. But is all reform necessarily right or good?-and who decides? A range of commentators-teachers, scholars, parents, and others-discuss the conflict in Alberta's schools.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780888643155
Publisher:	University of Alberta Press
Publication date:	03/01/1999
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	230
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	1440L (what's this?)

About the Author

Trevor W. Harrison is a Professor in the Sociology Department, University of Lethbridge, and former Director of the Parkland Institute. His areas of specialization include Canadian society, political economy, and public policy. Jerrold (Jerry) Kachur (1955-2020) was a professor of international political economy, social theory, and political philosophy. He taught undergraduate courses in the sociology of education and graduate courses in social theory and education, development theory and education, research methodologies, and policy analysis and education.

Table of Contents

Contributors

Introduction: Public Education, Globalization, and Democracy: Whither Alberta?

GLOBALIZATION AND EDUCATIONAL CHANGE

1. Passing Fancies; Educational Changes in Alberta

2. Constructing the Perpetual Learner: Education, Technology, and the New Economy

3. The "Alberta Advantage": For Whom?

4. The Marketing of the University

THE POLITICS OF EDUCATIONAL RESTRUCTURING IN ALBERTA

5 Orchestrating Delusions: Ideology and consent in Alberta

6 Re-Investment Fables: Educational Finances in Alberta

7 Deep and Brutal: Funding Cuts to Education in Alberta

8 From Boardroom to Classroom: School Reformers in Alberta

9 Privatizing Public Choice: The rise of Charter Schooling in Alberta

10 Challenging Restructuring: The Alberta's Teachers' Association

RE-ORGANIZING SCHOOLS: SCENES FROM THE CLASSROOM

11 Is it Just a Matter of Time? Part-Time Teaching Employment in Alberta

12 Board Games: The New (But Old) Rules

13 The Principalship at the Crossroads

Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

".highly informative, covers the main policy developments in an authoritative manner and could provoke much needed debate." David Taras, Alberta Views
"a fascinating and disturbing book.. We owe it to ourselves and our kids to read this significant and instructive book and to get more involved." Canadian Principal
"This book is an illuminating and thorough critique of Klein's education legacy. Trevor Harrison and Jerrold Kachur's collection of essays is meticulous and non-partisan, and though Classrooms was published in 1999 its critiques are remarkably prescient—useful to anyone wishing to understand the roots of the grievances outlined by 2003's Alberta Learning Commission." Evan Osenton, Assistant Editor, AlbertaViews

From the Publisher